Compact, high voltage capacitors are utilized as energy storage reservoirs in many applications, including implantable medical devices. These capacitors are required to have a high energy density, since it is desirable to minimize the overall size of the implanted device. This is particularly true of an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), also referred to as an implantable defibrillator, since the high voltage capacitors used to deliver the defibrillation pulse can occupy as much as one third of the ICD volume.
Implantable cardioverter defibrillators, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,388, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, typically use two electrolytic capacitors in series to achieve the desired high voltage for shock delivery. For example, an ICD may utilize two 350 to 400 volt electrolytic capacitors in series to achieve a voltage of 700 to 800 volts.
Electrolytic capacitors are used in ICDs because they have the most nearly ideal properties in terms of size, reliability and ability to withstand relatively high voltage. Conventionally, such electrolytic capacitors include an etched aluminum foil anode, an aluminum foil or film cathode, and a kraft paper or fabric gauze separator impregnated with a solvent-based liquid electrolyte interposed between the anode and the cathode. While aluminum is the preferred metal for the anode plates, other metals such as tantalum, magnesium, titanium, niobium, zirconium and zinc may be used. A typical solvent-based liquid electrolyte may be a mixture of a weak acid and a salt of a weak acid, preferably a salt of the weak acid employed, in a polyhydroxy alcohol solvent. The electrolytic or ion-producing component of the electrolyte is the salt that is dissolved in the solvent. The entire laminate is rolled up into the form of a substantially cylindrical body, or wound roll, that is held together with adhesive tape and is encased, with the aid of suitable insulation, in an aluminum tube or canister. Connections to the anode and the cathode are made via tabs. Alternative flat constructions for aluminum electrolytic capacitors are also known, comprising a planar, layered stack structure of electrode materials with separators interposed therebetween, such as those disclosed in the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,388.
In ICDs, as in other applications where space is a critical design element, it is desirable to use capacitors with the greatest possible capacitance per unit volume. Since the capacitance of an aluminum electrolytic capacitor is provided by the anodes, a clear strategy for increasing the energy density in the capacitor is to minimize the volume taken up by the separators and cathodes and maximize the number of anodes. A multiple anode stack configuration requires fewer cathodes and paper separators than a single anode configuration and thus reduces the size of the device. A multiple anode stack consists of a number of units each consisting of, in series, a cathode, a paper separator, two or more anodes, a paper separator and a cathode, with neighboring units sharing the cathode between them, all placed within the capacitor case.
The energy density of aluminum electrolytic capacitors is directly related to the surface area of the anodes generated in the electrochemical etching processes. Typical surface area increases are 40 to 1 and represent 30 to 40 million tunnels/cm2. An electrochemical widening step is used to increase the tunnel diameter after etching to insure the oxide layer described below will not close off the tunnels.
The high surface area foil is put through an oxidation process to grow a voltage supporting oxide layer with low leakage current and low deformation properties. An oven depolarization process is used after the oxidation process to drive off the waters of hydration, induce stress cracking and expose weak areas. A subsequent oxidation process, i.e., a reformation process, “heals” the stress cracks and improves the resulting leakage current. The number of defects can be reduced with each subsequent reformation and depolarization process until a constant level of defects is achieved.
However, the inventors have discovered that the use of several depolarization steps has a negative effect on capacitance and deformation in an electrolytic capacitor. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved oxide formation processes.